List of former United States citizens who relinquished their nationality
This is a list of notable former United States citizens who voluntarily relinquished their Citizenship, and through that act, their nationality. It includes only public figures who completed the process of relinquishment of United States Citizenship. This list excludes people who may have indicated their intent to do so but never formally completed the process, as well as immigrants who had their naturalizations canceled after convictions for war crimes or for fraud in the naturalization process.
List
; Key of reasonsTo take or run for a position in a foreign government. Spouses of foreign heads of state are included in this category.
To naturalize as a citizen of a foreign country, or to retain citizenship in a foreign country disallowing dual citizenship.
To protest U.S. policies or actions
Other or unclear reasons
The column "Federal Register" refers to whether and when the former citizen's name was published by the U.S. government in one of its lists of people giving up citizenship. "Too early" refers to people who relinquished citizenship before publication began. An asterisk indicates that Federal Register data for the quarter in which the person relinquished citizenship has not yet been released. See the article "Quarterly Publication of Individuals Who Have Chosen to Expatriate" for further details on the Federal Register list. The column U.S. Citizenship indicates how the person original ascertained US citizenship. Jus soli is citizenship by birth in the United States, whereas jus sanguinis here refers to citizenship through birth abroad to an American parent.
Federal policy towards U.S. citizens who naturalize in foreign countries has varied over the years. For most of the twentieth century, the State Department regarded such naturalizations as indicating the intent to relinquish U.S. citizenship in almost all cases. However, in 1990 the State Department adopted the administrative presumption that "when a U.S. citizen obtains naturalization in a foreign state, subscribes to routine declarations of allegiance to a foreign state, or accepts non-policy level employment with a foreign state", he or she intends to retain U.S. citizenship, overriding the earlier presumption that such acts indicated intent to relinquish U.S. citizenship.
| Name | Occupation | U.S. citizenship | Other citizenships | Description | Year emigrated | Year relinquished | Federal Register |
| Scholar | Jus soli | Japan | A native of Michigan and a World War II Pacific theater Marine Corps veteran, Abegglen went on to a career as a professor of management and economics. He moved to Japan in 1982 and naturalized as a citizen of the country in 1997. | ||||
| Diplomat | Naturalized | Republic of Macedonia | A native of Capari in the former Yugoslavia, Acevska came to the United States with her family in 1966. She relinquished U.S. citizenship in 1995 to become the first Macedonian Ambassador to the United States. | N/A | |||
| Politician | Naturalized | Lithuania | Adamkus was born in Kaunas, Lithuania, and came to Chicago as a refugee. He renounced U.S. citizenship in 1998 to become the President of Lithuania. | 1997 | |||
| Head of State | Jus sanguinis | Monaco | Born in Monaco in 1958, Prince Albert inherited U.S. citizenship from his mother, actress Grace Kelly. As a child he visited his U.S. relatives often, and later studied at Amherst College in Massachusetts. He relinquished his U.S. citizenship at age 21, and became Prince of Monaco in 2005. | N/A | -80 | Too early | |
| Actor | Jus sanguinis | India | Alter was born in Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, India to American missionary parents. He lived in India all his life with the exception of a year-long stint at Yale University in the late 1960s; he withdrew without completing his degree and returned to India. After moving to Mumbai to pursue a Bollywood career, he renounced his U.S. citizenship and naturalized as an Indian citizen to demonstrate his commitment to the country and gain acceptance among fans. | N/A | s | Too early | |
| Politician | Jus soli | Canada | Alward was born in Beverly, Massachusetts, and moved to New Brunswick with his family while he was still young. He went on to become Premier of New Brunswick. He was named Canada's Consul-General in Boston in April 2015, and renounced U.S. citizenship to accept the post. | s | |||
| Writer | Jus sanguinis | Greece | Andrews was born in China to American father Roy Chapman Andrews and his English wife, and served in the U.S.' 10th Mountain Division during World War II. After graduating from Harvard University in 1947, Andrews moved to Greece to pursue archaeological studies, and renounced his U.S. citizenship to naturalize as a Greek citizen in 1975. | Too early | |||
| Politician | Naturalized | Israel | Born in Lithuania in 1925, Arens came to the U.S. with his family in 1939, and naturalized as a U.S. citizen, but then emigrated to Israel to fight in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. He kept U.S. citizenship while serving in the Knesset in the 1970s, as Israeli law did not yet bar legislators from dual citizenship at that time. He gave up U.S. citizenship before becoming Israeli ambassador in Washington in 1982. | Too early | |||
| Businessperson | ? | Israel | Born in the British Mandate of Palestine, Arison moved to the U.S. in 1952, where he founded Carnival Cruise Lines. He renounced his U.S. citizenship in 1990 to return to the land of his birth, which by then had become the State of Israel. | Too early | |||
| Activist | Jus soli | Japan | Raised as David Christopher Aldwinckle in Geneva, New York, he gave up his U.S. citizenship in 2002 after becoming a citizen of Japan. Columnist at The Japan Times and author of "Japanese Only -- The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan", he advocates for minority rights in Japan, receiving his doctorate in International Studies at Meiji Gakuin University in 2014. | ||||
| Writer | Jus soli | United Kingdom | Texas native Ash, angered by the U.S.' initial stance of neutrality in World War II, renounced citizenship in 1939 to join the Royal Canadian Air Force as a fighter pilot and flew numerous missions against Nazi Germany before his capture. Held as a prisoner of war at Stalag Luft III, he made more than a dozen escape attempts, survived the war, and was demobilised in England, where he settled and naturalized. | Too early | |||
| Politician | Jus sanguinis | Israel | Azaria was born in Israel to an American mother who had made aliyah at age 18. She grew up in Israel, and never lived in the U.S. although she frequently visited relatives there. She renounced U.S. citizenship after being elected to the Knesset in the 2015 Israeli legislative election. | N/A | |||
| Musician | Jus soli | France | Born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri in 1906, she moved to Paris in 1925 to pursue a career as a dancer. She renounced U.S. citizenship to become a citizen of France in 1937. | Too early | |||
| Judge | Jus soli | Israel | Barak-Erez was born to Israeli parents in the U.S. and later returned with them to Israel, where she grew up and attended Tel Aviv University. She was named a justice of the Supreme Court of Israel in January 2012, which required her to give up any foreign citizenship she held. | ? | |||
| Financier | ? | Vanuatu | Bayer served in the United States Army during the Vietnam War, and remained in the Asia-Pacific region to pursue a career in finance, moving to Australia in 1967 and then to Singapore before coming to Vanuatu in 1974. When Vanuatu became independent in 1980 and asked prominent members of society to take Vanuatu citizenship, Bayer accepted and gave up U.S. citizenship in 1982. He went on to become a member of the board of directors of the Reserve Bank of Vanuatu. | 1960s | Too early | ||
| Politician | Jus sanguinis | Israel | Bennett was born in Israel to American émigré parents from California. He renounced U.S. citizenship after being elected to the 19th Knesset in the 2013 election. | N/A | |||
| Other | Jus soli | Saint Kitts and Nevis | Bilzerian, a writer and professional poker player, is a native of Tampa, Florida and the son of corporate takeover specialist Paul Bilzerian. Dissatisfied with the U.S. government's treatment of his father, who was tried for market manipulation in the early 1990s, and concerned over the direction of the country during the presidency of George W. Bush, Bilzerian emigrated from the U.S. and sought citizenship in Saint Kitts and Nevis. | ||||
| Athlete | Jus soli | Spain | Brabender was born in 1945 in Montevideo, Minnesota. He was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers in 1967, but instead accepted an offer by Pedro Ferrándiz to join Real Madrid Baloncesto, and moved to Spain. He gave up U.S. citizenship to naturalize as a Spanish citizen so he could join the national basketball team, and went on to represent the country in the 1972, 1976, and 1980 Summer Olympics. | s | Too early | ||
| Politician | Naturalized | Germany | Brauer, a native of Germany, fled to France and then China after the Nazi rise to power, and eventually ended up in the U.S., where he worked as a university lecturer and was naturalized as a U.S. citizen. He travelled to Germany in June 1945 after the German surrender on a mission for the American Federation of Labor, and chose to renounce U.S. citizenship and resume his German citizenship so he could aid in reconstruction of Germany. He went on to become mayor of Hamburg in 1946. | Too early | |||
| Scientist | Jus soli | Belgium | A native of New York and an expert in statistical mechanics, Brout met Belgian physicist François Englert while a professor at Cornell University in the 1950s. He resigned his position to move to Belgium to continue their research collaboration in 1961, and naturalized as a citizen of the country a few years later, giving up his U.S. citizenship in the process. The two, along with Peter Higgs, went on to win the 2004 Wolf Prize in Physics and the 2010 Sakurai Prize for their work on the Higgs boson. After Brout's death in 2011, Englert and Higgs shared the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics for that same work. | s | Too early | ||
| Financier | Jus soli | United Kingdom | Born in Princeton, New Jersey in 1965, Browder emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1989. He founded Hermitage Capital Management there in Guernsey in 1996. He became a British citizen in 1997. He would go on to become one of the world's 100 highest-paid traders in 2007, earning an estimated £150 million that year. | ||||
| Politician | Naturalized | Jamaica | Born in Jamaica, Brown-Burke moved to the U.S. in 1986 and naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1995, but two years later decided to return to Jamaica. She got involved in Kingston local politics with the People's National Party in the 2000s. She moved from local to national politics in January 2012 with her appointment as Deputy President of the Senate of Jamaica, and renounced her U.S. citizenship to take up the position. | ||||
| Actor | Naturalized | Switzerland | Russian-born film and stage actor; held dual Swiss and U.S. citizenship until 1965, when he renounced his U.S. citizenship for tax reasons; he had lost his tax exemption as an American resident abroad by working too long in the U.S. and would have been bankrupted by what he owed in taxes and penalties. | ? | Too early | ||
| Musician | Jus soli | Greece | Opera singer born in New York City in 1923. She renounced U.S. citizenship in 1966 at the U.S. embassy in Paris in order to resume her ancestral Greek citizenship. | Too early | |||
| Politician | Naturalized | Philippines | Calayag was born in San Pablo, Laguna, Philippines in 1974, and moved to Washington state after completing university. He naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2009. Philippine Secretary of Agriculture Proceso Alcala, for whom Calayag had worked in the past, convinced him to move back to the Philippines and join the Department of Agriculture; Calayag renounced U.S. citizenship in January 2013 prior to becoming head of the National Food Authority. | ||||
| Activist | Jus soli | Honduras | Carney, a native of Chicago and a World War II veteran, first went abroad as a missionary to British Honduras in 1955. He moved to Honduras in 1961. Eventually, his belief in liberation theology would lead him to naturalize as a Honduran citizen in September 1974 and then renounce U.S. citizenship as a gesture of support for landless peasants and a measure of protest against the United States' influence in the country. Despite his naturalization, he was deported from the country in 1979, but returned and then disappeared, believed to have either starved to death in the jungle or been killed by the Honduran military. | Too early | |||
| Other | ? | Mozambique | Cate, an encryption expert, moved to Anguilla in 1994 after completing a master's degree in computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. He renounced his U.S. citizenship in 1998, in his words, "to be free from the silly U.S. laws on crypto". | ||||
| Artist | Jus soli | Mexico | Born in Washington, D.C. in 1915, Catlett first came to Mexico in 1946 to study the country's popular arts movements; there, she met the man who would become her husband, Francisco Mora. She naturalized as a Mexican citizen in 1962, and gave up her U.S. citizenship. She later faced difficulties getting a tourist visa to visit the U.S. due to her membership in the Taller de Gráfica Popular, a leftist arts group. She lived in Cuernavaca, Morelos until her death in 2012. | Too early | |||
| Politician | Jus sanguinis | Philippines | Cayetano was born in the Philippines in 1970 to Philippine Senator Renato Cayetano and his American wife, Sandra Schramm-Cayetano. He attended university in the Philippines, and renounced U.S. citizenship to stand for election to the Philippine House of Representatives in the 1998 elections, and to gain admission to the Philippine Bar that same month. He would go on to become the Philippine Senate Minority Leader. | N/A | |||
| Politician | ? | People's Republic of China | Cha renounced U.S. citizenship in 2001 to take up a position as Vice Chair of the China Securities Regulatory Commission. | ? | |||
| Scientist | Naturalized | People's Republic of China | A native of Taishan, Guangdong, Chan moved to Hong Kong at age 14 before going on to university in Japan and then the U.S., where he naturalized as a U.S. citizen. He moved to Taiwan in 1992 and then returned to Hong Kong in 1994. He renounced U.S. citizenship in 2001 after being named a fellow of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. | ||||
| Politician | ? | People's Republic of China | Chan was elected to the Legislative Council of Hong Kong in the 1998 elections to represent the insurance constituency. The Legislative Council Ordinance allows legislators in this and certain other functional constituencies to hold foreign citizenship; nevertheless, in the runup to the 2004 elections there was public discussion about amending the Ordinance to abolish this, and Chan renounced his U.S. and Thai citizenship to avoid controversy. | ? | |||
| Politician | ? | People's Republic of China | Chan moved back to Hong Kong after receiving a Ph.D. from Duke University in 2003. He pursued a career in pharmaceuticals research before entering politics as a member of the Kwun Tong District Council. He renounced his U.S. citizenship in February 2013 after being nominated as the political assistant for the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau. | ||||
| Actor | Jus soli | People's Republic of China | Born in Los Angeles, California, in 1982 to Jackie Chan and Joan Lin, Chan spent most of his childhood in Hong Kong. He attended college in the U.S., but dropped out to return to Hong Kong. He made his entertainment industry debut there in 2004. He renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2009 and became a PRC citizen, earning him praise in Chinese media for bucking the trend of Chinese actors obtaining Singaporean or other foreign passports. | N/A | |||
| Scientist | ? | Singapore | A native of Singapore, Chan-Palay studied at Smith College in Massachusetts, graduating in 1965. She and her then-husband Sanford Palay did seminal research in neuroscience in the 1970s; however, they later divorced. Chan-Palay moved to Switzerland and became a member of the faculty of the University of Zurich in 1989. | ||||
| Businessperson | Naturalized | India Singapore | Born in India in 1950, Chandran attended university there and in the Philippines before moving to the U.S. in 1976 with his Filipina American wife Vivian. He naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1981, and founded Chemoil that same year. In 2005 he moved himself and the company to Singapore to pursue opportunities in the Asian shipping market, and relinquished his U.S. citizenship in 2007 to become a citizen of Singapore. | ||||
| Politician | ? | Jamaica | Charles-Freeman is the daughter of Jamaican politician Pearnel Charles. She lived in the U.S. while studying at the University of Miami and Florida International University, then returned to Jamaica to complete a doctorate at the University of the West Indies. She renounced U.S. citizenship in August 2011 so she could run as a Jamaica Labour Party candidate in the elections at the end of that year. | s | |||
| Politician | Jus soli | Jamaica | Charles is a Jamaican politician who currently serves as a Government Senator in the Parliament of Jamaica and as a Minister of State. He lived in the U.S. while studying at the George Washington University Law School and later was admitted to the New York State Bar. He then returned to Jamaica where he continued practice as an Attorney-at-Law while serving as the Deputy spokesperson for National Security for the Jamaica Labour Party who was then in Opposition He renounced U.S. citizenship in 2016. | s | |||
| Judge | Naturalized | Republic of China | Chen left behind a career as a judge in Taiwan to emigrate to the U.S. in 1983, and naturalized as a citizen there in 1992. However, she later returned to Taiwan to resume her career as a judge, and relinquished her U.S. citizenship with her reinstatement by the Judicial Yuan. She obtained a U.S. green card in 2008 to make it easier for her to travel to the U.S. while caring for her granddaughter, but canceled it the following year. She would go on to become a member of the Council of Grand Justices. | s | |||
| Politician | Naturalized | Republic of China | Chen left Taiwan in 1961 to attend Wayne State University and Princeton University, and then returned to WSU to become an instructor. He naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1973, then returned to Taiwan in the 1990s and renounced U.S. citizenship in 1995 to enter politics. He thereafter served as a member of the National Security Council under Lee Teng-hui and as Vice-Minister of National Defense under Chen Shui-bian. | s | |||
| Politician | Naturalized | People's Republic of China | A native of Macau, Cheung grew up in Hong Kong, and moved to the U.S. for graduate school. He naturalized as a U.S. citizen, but returned to Hong Kong in 1996 to raise his developmentally challenged daughter. He renounced his U.S. citizenship to run in the 2004 LegCo elections, on a platform of improving social services for elderly and disabled people. | ||||
| Athlete Politician | Naturalized | Republic of China | A native of Hsinchu, Taiwan, she won a bronze medal for the ROC team at the 1968 Summer Olympics. She naturalized as a U.S. citizen after marrying an American and living in the U.S., but returned to Taiwan in the 1970s. In 2009, President Ma Ying-jeou invited her to take up a policy advisor position in his government, which required her to give up U.S. citizenship. | s | |||
| Politician | Naturalized | People's Republic of China | Chu was born in Shanghai in 1944, and moved to Bedford, Massachusetts with his parents in 1958. He relocated to Hong Kong in 1977 for career reasons, and became involved in local and mainland politics. He renounced U.S. citizenship in June 1994. He would go on to become a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong and the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China. | ||||
| Other | Jus soli | Yemen | A native of San Juan Capistrano, California, Conde went to Lebanon to study Arabic at the American University of Beirut in 1950, and eventually ended up in the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen, where in 1956 he renounced his U.S. citizenship to become an information officer in the government of Ahmad bin Yahya. After the Royalists lost the North Yemen Civil War, he fled to Spain and then Morocco, where he died a stateless man in 1992. | Too early | |||
| Politician | ? | Republic of China | Dang, a Democratic Progressive Party member in Taiwan, was named head of the Environmental Protection Administration by Chen Shui-bian after the 2004 elections, and renounced his U.S. citizenship to take up the position. | ? | |||
| Businessman | Jus soli | Belize, Cayman Islands, Ireland | In the mid-1990s Kenneth Dart and his brother, Robert, both renounced their American citizenship. Kenneth took Caymanian, Belizean and, later, Irish, citizenship. Robert holds Belizean and Irish citizenship, and resides in London. Kenneth Dart acquired citizenship of, and a compound in, the Cayman Islands, a tax haven. | ? | s | ||
| Activist | Jus soli | Davis was born in Bar Harbor, Maine. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, Davis renounced his U.S. citizenship in 1948 in Paris in order to become a "citizen of the world", and created the first "World Passport". | ? | Too early | |||
| Athlete | Jus soli | Republic of China | Davis was born in Los Angeles, California. After graduating from Tulane University in 2006, he went on to play professional basketball in Europe and South America before coming to Taiwan in 2011 to join the Super Basketball League. He renounced his U.S. citizenship in June 2013 so he could naturalize in Taiwan and play for the Chinese Taipei men's national basketball team in the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship. | ||||
| Diplomat | Jus soli | Israel | Dermer was born in Miami Beach, Florida in 1971. He moved to Israel in 1996, and began the process of becoming a citizen there in 1997. In 2005, then-Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed him Minister for Economic Affairs in the Israeli embassy in Washington, a post for which he had to renounce his U.S. citizenship. | ||||
| Businessperson | Jus soli | The Bahamas | Dingman was born in Connecticut in 1931. He moved to the Bahamas in 1964, and renounced U.S. citizenship in 1994 to become a citizen of the country. He denied that this was for reasons related to taxation. | ||||
| Scholar | Jus soli | Ghana | Du Bois, a native of Massachusetts, moved to Ghana in 1961 at age 93 to manage the Encyclopedia Africana project. The U.S. State Department refused to renew his passport while he was living there, so Du Bois chose to naturalize as a citizen of Ghana in 1963. Some sources claim that he renounced U.S. citizenship, but David Levering Lewis' biography of him states that he did not; instead, he lost it automatically under the law at the time upon voluntarily becoming a citizen of another country and swearing an oath of allegiance to it. | Too early | |||
| Politician | Jus soli | Nicaragua | D'Escoto, born in Los Angeles in 1933, went into politics in Nicaragua in the 1970s and renounced his U.S. citizenship. He held the post of Foreign Minister of Nicaragua from 1979–1980, as well as that of President of the United Nations General Assembly from 2008 to 2009. | ? | s or earlier | Too early | |
| Writer | Jus soli | United Kingdom | Born in 1888 in St. Louis, Missouri, Eliot moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 to attend Merton College, Oxford. He married Briton Vivienne Haigh-Wood the following year, and rose to fame as a poet and playwright. He gave up U.S. citizenship in 1927 to become a British subject. | Too early | |||
| Royalty | Naturalized | Serbia | A native of Belgrade, Princess Elizabeth lived in the U.S. during her marriage to American clothier Howard Oxenberg, with whom she had a daughter, American actress Catherine Oxenberg. She moved to London after her marriage to Oxenberg ended, and married Briton Neil Balfour. Now living in Serbia, she is a political activist and one-time candidate for the presidency of Serbia. She renounced U.S. citizenship in 2012 and is listed in the Federal Register under her civil name Elizabeth Karageorgevic. | s | |||
| Artist | Naturalized | France | Born in Germany in 1891, Ernst lived in France for most of his life. He fled the Nazi occupation in 1941 and came to the U.S., where he married Peggy Guggenheim and naturalized as a U.S. citizen; however, the two divorced in 1946, and four years later Ernst returned to France. He gave up his U.S. citizenship in 1958 to naturalize as a French citizen. He died in Paris in 1976. | Too early | |||
| Businessperson | ? | United Kingdom | German-born oil businessman | ? | |||
| Musician | Jus soli | South Korea | Eru is the stage name of Cho Sung-hyun, a singer born in New York City to Korean immigrant parents. He dropped out of the Berklee College of Music in 2003 to move to South Korea and pursue his career as a singer there. He gave up U.S. citizenship in 2008 to take South Korean citizenship and serve in the army there. | ||||
| Diplomat | Jus sanguinis | Norway | Gade was born at Frogner Manor in Norway in 1870 to American diplomat parents. At age 18 he moved to the United States, where he went on to marry an American woman and serve four terms as mayor of Lake Forest, Illinois. In 1910, after five years of service as Norway's honorary consul in Chicago, he decided to move back to Norway and renounce his U.S. citizenship to enter the Norwegian diplomatic service, though he was left stateless until he had fulfilled the two-year residency period to gain Norwegian citizenship. | Too early | |||
| Politician | Naturalized | Afghanistan | Ghani, a native of Logar Province, moved to the United States in 1977 to attend Columbia University, and pursued a career as an anthropoligist there. He moved back to Afghanistan in 2002, where he served as President Hamid Karzai's Finance Minister until 2004. He renounced U.S. citizenship to run for president of Afghanistan in 2009, but was not elected. | ||||
| Director | Jus soli | United Kingdom | Gilliam was born in Minneapolis. In 1968, he obtained British citizenship, then held dual U.S. and British citizenship for the next 38 years. In January 2006 he renounced his U.S. citizenship, describing the George W. Bush administration as having created an environment "scarily similar to the Orwellian nightmare" of his 1985 film Brazil. | s | |||
| Activist | Jus soli | Gogulski, a political activist born in Phoenix, Arizona, moved to Eastern Europe in 2004 and then renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2008 in Slovakia without obtaining any other. | |||||
| Diplomat Politician | Jus soli | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | Gonsalves was born in Philadelphia to Ralph Gonsalves and his Jamaican wife Sonia Gonsalves in 1971. He attended university and worked as a journalist and corporate lawyer in the U.S. before moving back to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to take a government post as a Senior Counsel. He lived in the U.S. again while serving as SVG's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, during which posting he retained his U.S. citizenship. He renounced his U.S. citizenship in September 2013, prior to being appointed a Senator in the House of Assembly. | s or 2000s | |||
| Spy | Jus soli | Cuba | González was born in Chicago in 1956, but moved to Cuba as an infant. He returned to the U.S. in 1990 as a Cuban agent, posing as a defector. In 2001, he was convicted of spying on U.S. military facilities in South Florida and sentenced to prison as one of the "Cuban Five". He was released in 2011 and placed on probation for three years. In April 2013, during his second trip to Cuba since his release, he requested to be permitted to remain there with his family; the U.S. Justice Department agreed on the condition that he renounce his U.S. citizenship and thus his right to return to the country. | ||||
| Engineer | Jus soli | Japan | Gorham, a native of San Francisco, moved to Japan with his wife and children in 1918, where he worked as an engineer for various predecessors of Nissan before transferring to Hitachi. He and his wife renounced U.S. citizenship to naturalize as Japanese citizens in May 1941, apparently to escape increasing wartime restrictions on foreigners. He worked on jet engines at Hitachi during the war, while his son, who maintained his United States citizenship, moved to Washington, D.C. and joined the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence. | Too early | |||
| Politician | ? | Saint Kitts and Nevis | Grant renounced U.S. citizenship in 2009, during the debate on the National Assembly Elections bill which would bar dual citizens from standing for election. | ? | |||
| Politician | ? | Dominica | Green, a United Workers' Party politician, has been involved in Dominican politics since the 1990s. He renounced his U.S. citizenship to qualify for the 2009 election. | ? | |||
| Diplomat | Naturalized | Afghanistan | Hakimi was born in Kabul in 1968, and joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after graduating from the Polytechnical University of Kabul. As fighting in Afghanistan's ongoing civil war intensified, he emigrated to the U.S. in 1994, settling in Long Beach, California where his parents and siblings already lived. He naturalized as a U.S. citizen, but moved back to Afghanistan in 2002 and resumed his career in the Afghan government. He renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2005 to take up a post as Afghanistan's ambassador to China. In 2011 he was named Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States. | ||||
| Other | Jus soli | Saudi Arabia | Hamdi was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to Saudi parents, and moved to Saudi Arabia with them as a child. He was captured in Afghanistan in 2001 and detained as a purported "illegal enemy combatant". In 2004, he was released to Saudi Arabia after agreeing to renounce his U.S. citizenship once he arrived there. | s | |||
| Actor | Jus soli | South Korea | Han Ye-seul is the stage name of Leslie Kim, an actress born to Korean immigrant parents in southern California in 1981. She graduated from Cerritos College and then emigrated to South Korea, where she made her debut as a model in 2001. She renounced her U.S. citizenship in 2004 to take South Korean citizenship. | ||||
| Medicine | Jus soli | People's Republic of China | Born in Buffalo, New York to Lebanese American parents in 1910, Hatem came to Shanghai in the 1930s to set up a medical practice. In 1949 he became the first foreigner to naturalize as a citizen of the People's Republic of China. | s | Too early | ||
| Politician | Naturalized | Jamaica | Born in Westmoreland Parish, Jamaica, Hayles emigrated to the U.S. in the 1980s at age 13 with his family, and returned to Jamaica in 2000. He was elected to the Parliament of Jamaica in the September 2007 election, and renounced his U.S. citizenship the following month. | ||||
| Businessperson | Jus sanguinis | Thailand | Heinecke was born in 1949 to a U.S. Foreign Service Officer and grew up in Japan, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. He came to Thailand in 1963 with his parents, and after graduating from the International School Bangkok remained in Thailand, first working in advertising before launching a hospitality industry business which grew into Minor International. He renounced U.S. citizenship in 1991 to naturalize as a Thai citizen. | N/A | Too early | ||
| Writer | Naturalized | A native of Chemnitz in eastern Germany, Heym fled in the Nazis in 1933 to Czechoslovakia before coming to the U.S. for further studies in 1935. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II and later naturalized as a U.S. citizen. He emigrated from the U.S. with his American wife in 1951, fearing investigation by the House Un-American Activities Committee. They first lived in Prague before finally settling in East Germany, where in 1953 he renounced his U.S. citizenship in protest of his former country's participation in the Korean War. | Too early | ||||
| Scholar | Jus soli | South Korea | A native of New York City, Heyman first came to South Korea in 1953 during the Korean War, and developed an interest in Korean traditional music; he returned to the country in 1960 and devoted the rest of his life to musical research and composition, and received awards from UNESCO and the South Korean government in recognition of his work. He naturalized as a South Korean citizen in 1995, taking the name Hae Eui-man. | ||||
| Scholar | Jus soli | Germany | Hite was born in Missouri. She went on to become a sex educator and feminist studies scholar. She moved to Germany in 1987, stating that her decision was "my political protest, in line with many U.S. writers and intellectuals before me, ... the growing clamping down on independent thought in the U.S." In 1995, she renounced her U.S. citizenship in 1995 and became a German citizen. | ||||
| Other | Jus soli | South Korea | A native of California, Holley first came to South Korea in 1978 as a Mormon missionary, and then returned in 1987 to pursue a legal career. He naturalized as a South Korean citizen in 1997, and later rose to fame as a television personality. | ||||
| Politician | Jus soli | Armenia | Hovannisyan was born in Brentwood, California to Armenian American parents. He moved to Armenia in 1989, and applied for citizenship there in 1991, which would require him to give up all foreign citizenships upon approval. However, the processing of his application was delayed for nearly a decade; in 2001, Hovannisyan forced the issue by renouncing his U.S. citizenship even without his Armenian citizenship approved, becoming stateless. President Robert Kocharyan then gave in to pressure and issued a decree granting Armenian citizenship to him. | ||||
| Politician | Jus sanguinis | Republic of China | Born in Japan in 1971 to a Taiwanese father and an American mother, she did her secondary and tertiary education in the U.S., where she became involved with the Democratic Progressive Party. In 1996, she moved back to Taiwan to become the party's Director of International Affairs. She renounced citizenship in the early 2000s in order to take up legislative office in Taiwan. | s | |||
| Director | Jus soli | Ireland | Nevada, Missouri-born film director, screenwriter, and actor. He emigrated to Ireland in 1952 in disgust over the activities of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, and renounced U.S. citizenship in 1964 to become an Irish citizen. | Too early | |||
| Other | Jus soli | Denmark Dominican Republic | Hutton, a native of New York City, moved to Denmark in 1935 upon her marriage to Count Kurt von Haugwitz-Reventlow, and two years later renounced U.S. citizenship to take the Danish citizenship of her husband. Hutton lived in the U.S. again during her marriage to actor Cary Grant, which ended in 1945. In 1953 she became a citizen of the Dominican Republic through her marriage to her fifth husband Porfirio Rubirosa. | Too early | |||
| Politician | Naturalized | Estonia | Born in Sweden to Estonian émigré parents, Ilves grew up in New Jersey and naturalized as a U.S. citizen. He emigrated to Estonia and renounced his U.S. citizenship shortly after Estonia regained its independence with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and went on to become the President of Estonia. | s | s | Too early | |
| Businessman | Jus soli | Ireland | Ingram renounced his US citizenship after his bribery jail sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter. He became an Irish citizen. | ? | Too early | ||
| Politician | Jus soli | Guyana | Born Janet Rosenberg, a native of Chicago, she emigrated to Guyana in 1943 with her husband, Indo-Guyanese politician Cheddi Jagan. She renounced U.S. citizenship in 1947 and in 1997 became the sixth president of Guyana. | Too early | |||
| Writer | Jus soli | United Kingdom | A native of New York City, James traveled frequently between Europe and the U.S. before settling in England in 1876, where he became famous for novels about Americans living abroad such as Daisy Miller and The Portrait of a Lady. He renounced U.S. citizenship in 1915 and became a British subject to protest U.S. neutrality in World War I. | Too early | |||
| Diplomat | Naturalized | Afghanistan | Jawad, a native of Afghanistan, fled the country in 1980 after the Soviet invasion, eventually ending up in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he naturalized as a U.S. citizen. In 2002, he responded to Hamid Karzai's call for help from the Afghan diaspora in rebuilding the country by moving back to Afghanistan and joining the new government. He renounced U.S. citizenship in 2003 in preparation for taking up a new post as Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States. | ||||
| Scholar | Naturalized | South Korea | Born in Gwangju in 1935, Jang moved to the U.S. in the 1950s and naturalized as a U.S. citizen. He returned to South Korea in the 1980s when doing consulting work for the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He gave up U.S. citizenship and restored his South Korean citizenship in May 1998 to become president of the state-owned Korea Electric Power Company. | s | |||
| Politician | ? | Saint Kitts and Nevis | Jeffers grew up on Nevis before coming to the U.S. to attend Broward College and Florida Atlantic University in Florida. In 2009, Saint Kitts and Nevis' new National Assembly Elections Act mandated that all candidates for elections swear at the time of their nomination that they lacked citizenship in any other country; Jeffers renounced his U.S. citizenship so he could stand in the January 2010 general election. | ? | |||
| Scientist | Naturalized | People's Republic of China | Jin was born in Shanghai, and moved to the U.S. to earn his doctorate in genetics at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, graduating in 1994. He moved back to Shanghai at the urging of his former professor Tan Jiazhen in 2005, and then renounced U.S. citizenship to resume his original Chinese citizenship. | ||||
| Politician | Jus soli | United Kingdom | Johnson was born in New York City in 1964 to British parents, and the family returned to the United Kingdom in 1969. He was elected member of parliament in 2001 and mayor of London in 2008. In 2014, he unsuccessfully protested the imposition of capital gains tax by the United States on his home in London, and renounced U.S. citizenship in 2016 while becoming Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom. | 1969 | Q4 2016 | ||
| Activist | Jus soli | Born in Greensboro, North Carolina, Jolley moved to Canada in 1967 to avoid being drafted after receiving a draft to serve in the Vietnam War and renounced U.S. citizenship. He returned to the U.S. later that year. A federal appeals court found Jolley to be removable, but Canada refused to re-admit Jolley as he was not a citizen and had lost his landed immigrant status there, and so he went on living in the U.S. as a stateless alien. He died in Asheville, North Carolina in 2014. | Too early | ||||
| Politician | Jus soli | Israel | A native of Brooklyn, New York, Kahane emigrated to Israel in 1971, where he founded the political party Kach. He became a member of the Knesset on the Kach party list in the 1984 election. Renounced U.S. citizenship in September 1988, but expressed a desire to regain his U.S. citizenship just a month later, after his party was barred from the 1988 election. | Too early | |||
| Diplomat | Naturalized | Latvia | A Latvian American and raised in the United States, after Latvia regained its independence in 1991, Kalniņš renounced his U.S. citizenship to become Latvia's ambassador in Washington in 1993. After his term as ambassador ended, he moved to Latvia to pursue a political career there, eventually becoming a member of the Saeima. | Too early | |||
| Politician Businessperson | Naturalized | Afghanistan | The brother of Afghan president Hamid Karzai, he naturalized as a U.S. citizen but then moved back to Afghanistan in 2001 to pursue business opportunities. He renounced his U.S. citizenship in January 2013 in order to launch his political career in Afghanistan; he did not specify what position he would seek, though he stated he would not be a candidate in the 2014 presidential election. | ||||
| Politician | ? | Pakistan | A member of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, she renounced U.S. citizenship in March 2013 to run in the Pakistani general election that year. | ? | |||
| Scholar | Jus soli | Japan | Born in 1922 in New York City, Keene served as a professor at Columbia University for over five decades. After his retirement, he moved to Japan in 2011 as a demonstration of his support for the country in the aftermath of the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. He obtained Japanese citizenship on March 8, 2012, which required him to relinquish his U.S. citizenship as a condition. | ||||
| Politician | Jus soli | Australia | Born in 1968 in Las Vegas, Nevada and raised in Whitehouse, Ohio, Keneally emigrated to Australia with her husband in 1994, and became a citizen there in 1999. She gave up U.S. citizenship to enter Australian politics, and went on to become 42nd Premier of New South Wales. | ||||
| Politician | Naturalized | Republic of China | Kuan, a native of Taipei, studied in California in the 1980s, and obtained a green card and then U.S. citizenship. He moved back to Taiwan in 1994. He retained his U.S. citizenship while serving on the board of directors of Taiwan's central bank in 2002–2003, but renounced it in late 2011 before being appointed Minister Without Portfolio in the Executive Yuan during President Ma Ying-jeou's second term the following year. | ||||
| Politician | Naturalized | Peru | Born in Peru in 1938, Kuczynski continued his higher education in the United Kingdom and the United States, where he later went into exile in 1969 due to political persecution. He remained in the United States working as an economist, and was naturalized in 1999. After returning to Peru in 2001, he was appointed Minister of Economy and Finance and later Prime Minister until 2006. He was a candidate for President of Peru in 2011. In 2015, he renounced his U.S. citizenship to demonstrate his commitment to Peru before running for president again in 2016, this time successfully. | ||||
| Other | Jus soli | Japan | Kurihara was born in Kauai, Hawaii in 1895 to Japanese immigrant parents. He was interned due to his ethnicity at Manzanar and then Tule Lake during World War II, and renounced U.S. citizenship under the Renunciation Act of 1944 in protest of the internment. After the end of World War II, he emigrated to Japan; he never sought to restore his U.S. citizenship, and lived in Tokyo until his death in 1965. | Too early | |||
| Writer | Jus soli | Canada | Labarge was born in New York City in 1916. She married a Canadian whom she met while studying at St Anne's College, Oxford and moved to Canada with him in 1940. She later renounced U.S. citizenship to become a Canadian citizen in the belief that she should strive to become a full member of the society in which she lived rather than holding on to the country she left behind. | s or later | Too early | ||
| Diplomat Economist | Naturalized | Poland | Naturalized U.S. citizen born in Poland; renounced his citizenship in 1945 to take up a position as Poland's ambassador to the U.S., in a case believed to be the first of its kind in diplomatic history. | ? | Too early | ||
| Politician | Jus sanguinis | Australia | Langbroek was born in Belgium to a Dutch father and American mother, and grew up in Australia. He gave up U.S. citizenship in 2001, and went on to become a Member of the Queensland Parliament. | N/A | |||
| Scholar Politician | Naturalized | People's Republic of China | Lau, a native of Guizhou, attended secondary school in Hong Kong before moving to the U.S. in 1960 for further studies, and pursued his academic career there for four decades before returning to Hong Kong in 2004 to become Vice-Chancellor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He renounced U.S. citizenship in January 2009 after being nominated to the Executive Council of Hong Kong. | ||||
| Politician | ? | People's Republic of China | Lee was born and raised in Hong Kong. She lived in the U.S. while attending high school, and then went on to University of Chicago where her parents had met, but afterwards moved to the United Kingdom before returning to Hong Kong in 1999. She relinquished U.S. citizenship in 2010, and went on to a variety of political positions in Hong Kong, including membership of the 1200-person Election Committee which picked the Chief Executive in 2012. | ||||
| Politician | Naturalized | Republic of China | Lee was born in Taiwan and naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1991. She held elected public office in Taiwan since 1994, but resigned in 2009 due to accusations that she had maintained dual citizenship. She claims to have relinquished U.S. citizenship by taking up office in 1994; but did not file a request for determination of loss of nationality at the time, resulting in the later controversy. | s | or later | ||
| Athlete | Jus soli | People's Republic of China | Born Jennifer Snow in Virginia, she moved to Hong Kong in 1994 with her husband, a Hong Kong native. She renounced U.S. citizenship in 2008 in order to naturalize as a Chinese citizen in Hong Kong so that she could represent Hong Kong at the 2008 Summer Olympics in equestrian; however, after she was naturalized, an injury to her horse forced her to withdraw from competition. She went on to represent Hong Kong at the 2010 Asian Games. | ||||
| Businessperson | Naturalized | Republic of China | A native of Taiwan, Lee moved to Tennessee at age 11, following his elder brother who already lived there, and later naturalized as a U.S. citizen. He moved to Beijing in 2005 to become Google China's first president, and in 2009 departed the company to found technology incubator Innovation Works. He renounced U.S. citizenship in 2011, and first discussed his renunciation publicly in an April 2013 post on Sina Weibo. | ||||
| Medicine | Jus soli | Ghana | A native of South Carolina, Lee and his wife Sara emigrated to Ghana in 1956 and set up a dental practice, at the head of a wave of African Americans moving to the country to participate in nation-building as its independence neared. He naturalized as a Ghanaian citizen in 1963, renouncing his U.S. citizenship in the process. He remained in Ghana until his death in 2010. | Too early | |||
| Scientist | Naturalized | Republic of China | Born in Taiwan, he naturalized as a U.S. citizen, and won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1986. He renounced U.S. citizenship after returning to Taiwan to take up a position with the Academia Sinica in 1994. | ||||
| Actor | Naturalized | Singapore | Beijing-born film actor and martial artist. He moved to Singapore in 2007 for his children's schooling. He renounced U.S. citizenship in 2009 to naturalize as a citizen of Singapore. | ? | |||
| Politician | Naturalized | Republic of China | A native of Tainan, Taiwan, Lin received a Doctorate of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University in the 1970s and remained in the U.S. until 1985. He renounced his citizenship in November 2011 to run as James Soong's VP on the People First Party ticket in the 2012 election. | ||||
| Filmmaker Photographer Writer | Jus soli | Republic of China | Born Thomas Christopher Locke, he is a native of the southern United States. He first came to Taiwan in 1988 to study at Tunghai University, and in 1994 renounced his U.S. citizenship to naturalize there. He went on to become well-known in Taiwan for his photography, filmmaking, and his 2003 book about his experiences in the Republic of China Army, Counting Mantou. | ||||
| Politician | Jus soli | Israel | A former resident of Silver Spring, Maryland, Lipman emigrated to Israel in 2005, and renounced his U.S. citizenship to be eligible to serve in the Israeli Knesset. | ||||
| Musician | Naturalized | Republic of China | Lo is a native of Miaoli, Taiwan and a formerly naturalized U.S. citizen. He rose to fame as a singer-songwriter in Taiwan in the 1970s. In May 2004, he held a concert in which he decried Dana Rohrabacher and Jim Ryun's and cut up his U.S. passport; the following week, he went to the para-consular American Institute in Taiwan to renounce his U.S. citizenship. | ? | |||
| Activist | Jus soli | Ukraine | Born in New York City in 1961, Lozowy moved to Ukraine in 1991 to work for the People's Movement of Ukraine, and later founded the Institute for Statehood and Democracy. He renounced U.S. citizenship in 1997 in the process of obtaining Ukrainian citizenship. He states that he is proud of his Ukrainian citizenship, as it helps him to feel closer to the people of Ukraine and fight against "the anti-national activities of the government". | ||||
| Royalty | Jus sanguinis | Greece | Born 1968 in London, Marie-Chantal inherited U.S. citizenship from her father, DFS co-founder Robert Warren Miller. She spent her childhood in Hong Kong and Paris, and moved to the U.S. in 1992 to enroll at New York University and to be closer to her future husband, Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece, who was attending Georgetown University at the time. She withdrew from NYU to marry Pavlos in 1995, and then moved to London with him in 2002. | ||||
| Politician | Jus soli | Switzerland | Mauch was born in Iowa City, Iowa to Swiss parents, and returned to Switzerland with them in her early youth. She has lived in Zurich for over thirty years, and became a member of the City Council in the 1990s before being elected mayor in 2009. | s or 1960s | or 2013 | ||
| Engineer | Jus soli | United Kingdom | A native of Sangerville, Maine, Maxim began his career as an inventor in Massachusetts before emigrating to the United Kingdom in 1881 to pursue the development of what would eventually come to be known as the Maxim gun. He gave up his U.S. citizenship to naturalize as a British subject in 1900. | Too early | |||
| Musician | Jus soli | United Kingdom | The son of violinist Yehudi Menuhin, Jeremy Menuhin was born in San Francisco, California, but followed his parents to Europe, where he studied at Eton College and made his debut as a pianist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He pursued his musical career in both Europe and North America for some decades before relinquishing U.S. citizenship in 2003. | ? | |||
| Musician | Jus soli | Switzerland United Kingdom | Menuhin, a world-famous violinist, was born in New York City in 1916, but lived and worked in Europe for most of his life. He obtained honorary Swiss citizenship in 1970, and British citizenship in 1985, in both cases without relinquishing U.S. citizenship. However, he renounced U.S. citizenship in 1994, and died five years later in Germany. | ? | |||
| Other | Jus soli | South Korea | Miller, a native of Pittston, Pennsylvania, first came to Korea in 1945 with the United States Navy, and naturalized as a South Korean citizen in 1979. The founder of South Korea's first privately established botanical garden, he lived in the country until his death in 2002. | Too early | |||
| Politician | Jus soli | British Overseas Territories | Missick was born in the U.S.; she did her primary education in the Turks and Caicos Islands before returning to the U.S. briefly to attend high school at MAST Academy in Florida, and then moved to the United Kingdom for further studies. After her graduation, she moved back to the Turks and Caicos Islands, where she became a member of the Progressive National Party. She renounced her U.S. citizenship on October 17, 2012, to be eligible to run in the 2012 general election. | s | |||
| Politician | Naturalized | Grenada | Mitchell was born in Grenada, West Indies. He naturalized as a U.S. citizen in January 1984. A member of the New National Party, he became the Prime Minister of Grenada in 1995. The U.S. State Department made a determination in 2001 that Mitchell had relinquished his U.S. citizenship by becoming PM in 1995. | ? | |||
| Financier | Jus soli | Germany | Mobius was born in Hempstead, New York to German and Puerto Rican parents. He went on to a career as an investor and emerging markets fund manager, moving to Hong Kong in 1969 to establish Mobius Incorporated. Mobius was entitled to German citizenship by descent; he renounced his U.S. citizenship and became a German citizen. | or earlier | |||
| Diplomat | Jus soli | Colombia | Moreno was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to a Colombian father attending medical school at the University of Pennsylvania. He did his early education in Colombia before coming to the U.S. for further studies. He renounced U.S. citizenship in 1998 after President Andrés Pastrana Arango named him Colombia's ambassador to Washington. | s | |||
| Politician Businessperson | Naturalized | South Korea | Nam was born in Uiseong, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea in 1954. He moved to Southern California in 1982, where he worked in real estate and also served in Korean American community organizations. He moved back to South Korea and gave up his U.S. citizenship in 2011 to pursue political ambitions with South Korea's Grand National Party. | ||||
| Other | Jus soli | Italy | Negrini, a native of Chicago, fell in love with a Roman Catholic priest and moved to his native Italy to be with him in 1951. She renounced U.S. citizenship in order to avoid deportation, and obtained an official declaration of statelessness from a Milan court. The priest was laicized to marry her; the two were excommunicated. Under Italian nationality law, she became an Italian citizen through the marriage. The two later tried to move to California at the invitation of an organisation there, but this was thwarted by Negrini's renunciation of U.S. citizenship, and they settled in Chihuahua, Mexico instead. | Too early | |||
| Financier | Jus soli | People's Republic of China | Nicholson migrated from New York City to Hong Kong in 2002, where in 2007 he would go on to become vice-chairman of BOC International's investment banking division, the first senior foreign executive in any Chinese bank. He renounced U.S. citizenship in 2013 after the Hong Kong Immigration Department approved his naturalization; applicants for naturalization in Hong Kong are not permitted to retain their previous citizenships. | ||||
| Activist | Jus soli | Princeton, New Jersey native who served as an ambulance driver in World War II. Concerned by a "climax of nationalism" in the U.S., he renounced his citizenship while working in France in 1948 and moved to Allied-occupied Germany, where he took a job as a construction worker and lived on German rations. Fellow renunciant Garry Davis would later mention Noel's actions as inspiration for his own renunciation. | s | Too early | |||
| Royalty | Jus soli | Jordan | Born Lisa Halaby in Washington, D.C. in 1951, she became a Jordanian citizen upon her marriage to King Hussein of Jordan in 1978. She claims she automatically lost U.S. citizenship by obtaining Jordanian citizenship, but that she did not renounce it. | Too early | |||
| Musician | Jus soli | France | A native of Philadelphia, Nocho moved to Canada in 1941, where he enlisted in the Canadian Army. He returned to the United States briefly when he transferred to the U.S. Army, but was quickly shipped off to Europe, just in time to see service during the Normandy landings. After World War II ended, he settled in France and began a career as a jazz singer at Paris nightclubs, one of numerous African Americans in France who pursued similar paths. He renounced U.S. citizenship in 1950 after becoming a French citizen. | Too early | |||
| Politician | ? | Ghana | Okaikoi, a former Ghana Army captain, renounced his U.S. citizenship in August 2012 in order to run in the 2012 Ghanaian parliamentary election as a candidate for the Odododiodoo constituency of the Accra Metropolis District. | ? | |||
| Other | Jus soli | Greece Argentina | Onassis was born in New York City in 1950 to businessman Aristotle Onassis, a Greek and Argentine citizen. She grew up in France and Greece. After her father's death in 1975, she renounced U.S. citizenship and donated the American portion of her holdings in her father's company to the American Hospital of Paris. | s | Too early | ||
| Other | Jus soli | United Kingdom | Daughter of American playwright Eugene O'Neill. Emigrated from the U.S. to the United Kingdom in 1952 to join her husband Charlie Chaplin after he was accused of "Communist sympathies" and denied re-entry to the U.S. that year; renounced U.S. citizenship to become a British subject in 1954. | Too early | |||
| Diplomat Historian | Jus soli | Israel | Oren was born in New York City in 1955 and raised in New Jersey. He emigrated to Israel in 1979, where he went on to become a historian, military officer and diplomat. He relinquished his U.S. citizenship in May 2009 upon taking up his new position as Israel's ambassador to the United States. | ||||
| Politician | Naturalized | Armenia | Oskanian was born in Syria in 1955, and graduated from the Yerevan Polytechnic Institute in 1979 before moving to Massachusetts to study at Tufts University. He went on to become the editor of an Armenian American newspaper in Los Angeles, but by 1992 had moved back to Armenia to join the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He gave up U.S. citizenship in 1998 to become head of that ministry under Prime Minister Robert Kocharyan's administration. | or earlier | |||
| Politician | Naturalized | Greece | A naturalized U.S. citizen, he renounced in 1964 to run in the 1964 Greek legislative election, and went on to become the Prime Minister of Greece. | ? | Too early | ||
| Scientist | Naturalized | South Korea | Park came to the U.S. in 1966 to pursue graduate studies at the University of Rochester. He moved back to his native South Korea in 1986, and renounced U.S. citizenship in 1996 when he joined South Korea's Food and Drug Administration. | ||||
| Other | Jus soli | Greece | The son of a Greek immigrant, Perdicaris was born and raised in South Carolina. With the onset of the American Civil War, he moved to Athens, Greece and registered himself as a Greek subject so that he would not have to serve in the Confederate States Army. He later lived in England, Germany, and Morocco. | Too early | |||
| Politician | Jus sanguinis | The Bahamas | Bahamian politician; renounced U.S. citizenship derived at birth from his American mother in February 2010. | ? | |||
| Politician | Jus soli | Bulgaria | Born in New York City to immigrant parents in 1948, but left the country with them for Bulgaria when they were expelled in 1953; renounced U.S. citizenship in 1974, although political opponents have questioned the validity of his renunciation. | Too early | |||
| Politician | Naturalized | India | Pitroda moved to the U.S. in 1964 for graduate studies at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He moved back to India in 1981 and later renounced U.S. citizenship to take up a position in Rajiv Gandhi's government as a science adviser. | Too early | |||
| Politician | Naturalized | Philippines | The adopted daughter of actors Fernando Poe, Jr. and Susan Roces, Poe moved to the U.S. to study at Boston College. After living in the U.S. for some time, she moved back to the Philippines in 2004, and renounced U.S. citizenship prior to becoming chairwoman of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board in 2010. She was later elected to the Senate of the Philippines. | ||||
| Politician | Naturalized | People's Republic of China | Poon, a native of Hangzhou, immigrated to Hong Kong after her middle school graduation. She moved to the U.S. in 1989 for further studies, and naturalized as a citizen there before returning to Hong Kong in 1997. She was appointed Undersecretary for the Environment Bureau under the Political Appointments System in May 2008. Though the Hong Kong Basic Law does not forbid undersecretaries to hold foreign passports, she renounced her U.S. citizenship the following month in order to avoid public controversy. | ||||
| Scientist | Naturalized | People's Republic of China | Born in 1962 in Jiangxi, Rao came to the U.S. in 1985 for graduate studies at the UC San Francisco, and later naturalized as a U.S. citizen. He moved back to China in 2007 to become dean of Peking University's School of Life Sciences, and renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2009. | ||||
| Athlete | Jus soli | Japan | Reed was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan to an American father and Japanese mother, a dual national at birth. Japanese nationality law requires those born dual citizens to renounce one citizenship or the other by age 22; Reed chose Japanese citizenship to continue representing Japan in ice dancing. | ? | |||
| Other | Jus soli | Austria | Born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1944 to an Austrian immigrant father, Rich rose to fame in the U.S. as a songwriter and socialite. In 2011, she moved to London and renounced U.S. citizenship to be closer to her husband and family, according to her lawyer. She is listed in the Federal Register under her maiden name Denise Eisenberg. | ? | |||
| Activist | Jus soli | Roberts, a privacy activist was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He moved to Latin America in 2002. In June 2013, he renounced his U.S. citizenship at the U.S. Consulate in Asuncion, Paraguay, and became stateless. | |||||
| Politician | ? | Saint Kitts and Nevis | Richards renounced U.S. citizenship in 2009, during the debate on the National Assembly Elections bill which would bar dual citizens from standing for election. | ? | |||
| Politician | Naturalized | Jamaica | Born in Jamaica, Robinson lived in the U.S. intermittently from 1978 to 2001. She naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2006, while a sitting member of the Parliament of Jamaica. In 2010, she was removed from her seat by court order, but then renounced her U.S. citizenship and won her seat back in a by-election. She is listed in the Federal Register under her maiden name Shahine Fakhourie. | ||||
| Engineer Businessperson | ? | Thailand | Roengpithya was born in Bangkok, and studied there and in London before coming to the U.S. in the late 1960s, where he worked in integrated circuit design. He returned to Thailand when his mother fell ill, and chose to make his return permanent. He founded the Asian University of Thailand in Chonburi Province in 1993. According to State Department records, he relinquished his U.S. citizenship the following year. | ? | |||
| Athlete | Jus soli | South Korea | Born to a Korean American mother and Italian American father, he graduated from Seattle Pacific University in 2003 and played basketball professionally in Luxembourg and Germany before coming to South Korea in 2006. He naturalized as a South Korean citizen and relinquished U.S. citizenship in June 2006 in an effort to meet eligibility requirements to play for his team. His elder brother Eric Sandrin followed him to South Korea and, in 2009, also naturalized as a South Korean citizen. | ||||
| Athlete | Jus soli | South Korea | Born Eric Lee Sandrin in 1978 to a Korean American mother, he grew up in the Pacific Northwest. His basketball career took him all over the world, including to teams in Luxembourg, Brazil, and Singapore. He eventually followed his younger brother to South Korea, and naturalized as a citizen there in 2009 so he could represent his new country at the Asian Games the following year. | s | |||
| Businessperson | Naturalized | Brazil | A native of Brazil, Saverin moved to the U.S. as a child in 1992 and became a U.S. citizen in 1998. While attending Harvard University, he played a role in the founding of Facebook. He moved to Singapore in 2009, and renounced his U.S. citizenship in September 2011. | ||||
| Politician | Naturalized | Belize | Born in Guatemala, Schakron became a naturalized U.S. citizen at age 15 along with her parents, thus holding dual citizenship, but later returned to her parents' native Belize. She renounced her U.S. citizenship in February 2012 in order to run as a People's United Party legislative candidate in the election the following month. | ? | |||
| Politician | Jus soli | Jamaica | Seaga was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1930 to Jamaican parents of Lebanese background, but grew up in Kingston. He renounced his U.S. citizenship in the 1950s to demonstrate his loyalty to Jamaica, and went on to become Prime Minister in 1980. | s | s | Too early | |
| Diplomat | Naturalized | Afghanistan | A native of Afghanistan, Shahryar received a scholarship to study chemistry in the U.S. in 1956, and remained in the U.S. after his graduation to work on solar energy projects with NASA. He later naturalized as a U.S. citizen. He renounced U.S. citizenship in 2002 when Hamid Karzai appointed him Afghanistan's new ambassador to the United States. | ||||
| Writer | Jus soli | People's Republic of China | Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1915, Shapiro moved to China in 1947, where he worked for the Foreign Languages Press as a translator of Chinese literature. He gave up his U.S. citizenship to become a Chinese citizen in 1963. | Too early | |||
| Athlete | Jus soli | Venezuela | Shepherd was born in La Grange, North Carolina, and played basketball for Delaware State. After graduating, he moved to Venezuela to continue his sports career in the Liga Profesional de Baloncesto. He naturalized as a Venezuelan citizen and gave up U.S. citizenship in 1986 to join the Venezuela national basketball team, as a member of which he represented the country at the 1992 Tournament of the Americas and the 1992 Summer Olympics. | 1970s | Too early | ||
| Scientist | Naturalized | People's Republic of China | Shi, a graduate of Tsinghua University in Beijing, went to U.S. for his Ph.D studies at Johns Hopkins University in the 1990s, and naturalized as a U.S. citizen. In 2003, he took up a professorial position at Tsinghua. In 2008, he moved back to China full-time, and the following year became Dean of Tsinghua's School of Life Sciences. He renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2011. | ||||
| Politician | Jus soli | Vanuatu | Born Robert Bohn in California, he moved to Vanuatu in 1978, and gave up U.S. citizenship in 1997 to naturalize as a citizen of Vanuatu. He acquired the name "Sikol" upon his ceremonial adoption by a native family. He went on to become the first naturalized member of the Parliament of Vanuatu in the 2012 elections. | ||||
| Scholar | Naturalized | South Korea | Song was born in Daejeon in 1936, and came to the U.S. in 1960 to study at Washington University in St. Louis. He received U.S. permanent residence in 1970 and naturalized as a U.S. citizen, but returned to South Korea to take up a professorship at his alma mater Yonsei University in 1977. He gave up U.S. citizenship in 1984, and would go on to become chancellor of Yonsei University in 1994 and Minister of Education in 2000. | s | Too early | ||
| Writer | Jus soli | United Kingdom | Stcherbatcheff is a Chicago-born writer and best-selling author. She moved to London after graduating from university and naturalized as a British citizen. She renounced her US citizenship in 2014. | ||||
| Politician | ? | Jamaica | Stern was elected to the Parliament of Jamaica in 2007. In 2009 it came to light that he was a dual citizen of the U.S. and Jamaica and thus not eligible to sit in Parliament; he then renounced his U.S. citizenship and won back his seat in a by-election. | ? | |||
| Athlete | Jus soli | Japan | Born Jesse James Wailani Kuhaulua in Hawaii, he moved to Japan in 1964 to pursue a career in sumo. He naturalized as a Japanese citizen and then relinquished his U.S. citizenship in 1976 when the Japan Sumo Association instituted a new requirement that only Japanese citizens could be promoted to the rank of toshiyori and run their own stables. | Too early | |||
| Financier | Jus soli | United Kingdom The Bahamas | Templeton was born in Winchester, Tennessee. He renounced his U.S. citizenship in 1968 to become a Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies, also later acquiring Bahamian citizenship after the territory became an independent country. Templeton's renunciation had significant tax benefits, though he stated his emigration was motivated by the desire to get away from the pressures of Wall Street in order to improve his investment decision-making process. He lived in the Bahamas until his death in 2008. | Too early | |||
| Diplomat Scholar | Naturalized | Republic of China | Tien came to the U.S. in the 1960s to attend the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and thereafter was a university professor for more than 20 years. After moving back to Taiwan, he refused two invitations by Lee Teng-hui to join Taiwan's government, before accepting an appointment as Minister of Foreign Affairs under Chen Shui-bian in 2000. He renounced U.S. citizenship eight days before taking the post. He later became Taiwan's representative to the United Kingdom. | 1990s | |||
| Politician Activist | Naturalized | Republic of China | Tsay, a native of Kaohsiung, came to the United States in 1978 to pursue a Ph.D. at Cornell University. Taiwan's government blacklisted him due to his support for the Tangwai movement, leaving him unable to return home, so he remained in New York State and naturalized as a U.S. citizen. After the end of martial law in Taiwan, he moved back to the island in 1990, and renounced U.S. citizenship in 2002 to become vice-chairman of Taiwan's Environmental Protection Administration. | ||||
| Businessperson | Jus soli | Costa Rica | Tupper was born in Berlin, New Hampshire, and founded the Tupperware company in 1938. In 1958, shortly after selling his company and divorcing his wife, he bought an island off Costa Rica and renounced his U.S. citizenship to avoid taxes. | ? | Too early | ||
| Musician | Jus soli | Switzerland | Turner was born in 1939 in Nutbush, Tennessee, and rose to international fame as a singer. She began dating German music executive Erwin Bach in 1985, and moved to Zürich with him in 1994. Her application for Swiss citizenship was approved in April 2013, and she confirmed her relinquishment of U.S. citizenship to the U.S. Embassy in Bern in October 2013. | ||||
| Engineer Restaurateur | Jus soli | Singapore | Born in Detroit, Utchenik's work in petroleum engineering brought him to Asia in 1991. He settled in Singapore five years later, where he founded the American-style food chain Botak Jones in 2003. He naturalized as a Singaporean citizen in August 2009. | ||||
| Politician | Jus sanguinis | Jamaica | Born in Jamaica to a Puerto Rican mother, Vaz was elected to the Parliament of Jamaica while still holding U.S. citizenship, which he formally renounced in 2008 after a challenge to his eligibility. | ? | |||
| Businessperson | Jus soli | Saint Kitts and Nevis | Ver moved to Tokyo, Japan in 2005. He used money he earned from Bitcoin investments to purchase property in Saint Kitts and Nevis and become a citizen of the country through its economic citizenship program, and then gave up U.S. citizenship in March 2014. | ||||
| Politician | ? | Jamaica | Walker grew up in Kingston, Jamaica, and served as Jamaica's Director of Elections and Commissioner of Customs. He renounced his U.S. citizenship to run as a Jamaica Labour Party candidate in the 2011 election. | ? | |||
| Politician | Naturalized | United Kingdom | A native of England, Wallop moved to Sheridan, Wyoming, became a rancher, and naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1891. His four elder brothers all died without male heirs, the last in 1922, so he returned to the United Kingdom in 1925 to take up his title. He renounced his U.S. citizenship in 1933 to take his seat in the House of Lords. | Too early | |||
| Politician | ? | Jamaica | Warmington was born and raised in Browns Hall, Saint Catherine Parish, Jamaica. He joined the Jamaica Labour Party and was first elected to the Parliament of Jamaica in the 2002 elections. In 2011 it came to light that he had been a dual citizen at the time of his nomination and was thus ineligible to sit in Parliament. Warmington had already renounced his U.S. citizenship by that point; he resigned from his seat and was returned unopposed in a by-election. | ? | |||
| Politician | Jus soli | Jamaica | Webster was born in 1969 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, but raised in Jamaica, and naturalized there in 1988. She was elected to Parliament in 1997. In 2008, the dual nationality of a number of Jamaican politicians became a public issue; Webster eventually announced in 2009 that she would renounce U.S. citizenship, but the 2010–2011 U.S. diplomatic cables leak revealed she had not. Later that year, Webster carried out her renunciation, receiving a Certificate of Loss of Nationality on October 27, 2011. | ||||
| Businessperson | ? | Saint Kitts and Nevis | Founder of USANA Health Sciences. | ? | or earlier | ||
| Activist | Jus soli | United Kingdom | New York City-born social activist; moved to the United Kingdom and then renounced U.S. citizenship in 1935. | ? | Too early | ||
| Activist Businessperson | Jus soli | None | A Denver-area real estate businessman frustrated by fruitless efforts to draw attention to alleged corruption and malfeasance by the Resolution Trust Corporation in the aftermath of the 1980s savings and loan crisis, Wilfred emigrated to Canada and then New Zealand, where he renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2005. He has applied for New Zealand citizenship, but continues to face immigration difficulties in his new country of residence. | s | |||
| Writer | Jus soli | United Kingdom | A native of Maryland, Wilson served in the Vietnam War and then moved to Europe, eventually settling in Suffolk, England in 1974. He gave up U.S. citizenship in 1983 after becoming a British citizen. He later went on to a career as a writer of spy fiction. | 1970s | Too early | ||
| Activist | Jus soli | Republic of China | Born in the U.S. in 1954, Winkler emigrated to Taiwan in 1977. He renounced U.S. citizenship to naturalize as a Republic of China citizen in 2003. A lawyer and environmental activist, he is involved with the Green Party Taiwan, though due to constitutional limitations he is not eligible to run as a legislative candidate until 10 years after naturalizing. | ||||
| Spy | Jus soli | Soviet Union | Born in New York City, Wovschin worked for the U.S. government in the Office of War Information and later the Department of State, and began spying for the Soviet Union. She married an employee of Soviet trading firm Amtorg, moved to Russia with him after World War II, and gave up U.S. citizenship to become a Soviet citizen. She is believed to have died in North Korea during the Korean War. | or later | or later | Too early | |
| Activist Politician | Jus soli | Canada | A native of Lacey, Washington, Wright became involved with opposition to the Vietnam War in the mid-1960s; his activities with Students for a Democratic Society caused the U.S. State Department to revoke his passport. He emigrated to Canada in 1968, renounced his U.S. citizenship, and became a Canadian citizen in 1974. He would go on to become mayor of New Denver, British Columbia. | Too early | |||
| Businessperson | ? | Republic of China People's Republic of China | Yang was born in Taiwan. He graduated from the California Institute of Technology in 1977 and worked for a few years in the U.S. before moving to Hong Kong in 1983. He renounced his U.S. citizenship in May 2012 in preparation for taking up a position as the head of the Hong Kong government's newly created Technology and Communications Bureau. | ||||
| Scholar Diplomat | Naturalized | South Korea | Yang was born in Gokseong County, Jeollanam-do in 1939. He came to the U.S. in 1965 to study for a master's degree at the University of Hawaii at Manoa's East–West Center. He naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1977, but returned to South Korea in 1986 and gave up U.S. citizenship to resume his South Korean citizenship in 1989. He went on to become a member of the National Assembly in 1996 and South Korea's ambassador to the U.S. from 2000 to 2003. | Too early | |||
| Actor | Naturalized | People's Republic of China | Yen was born in Taishan, Guangdong in 1963, migrated to Hong Kong with his family at age 2, and then moved to Boston, Massachusetts at age 10, where he spent his teenage years. He returned to Hong Kong in 1983 to pursue a career as a movie actor. He renounced U.S. citizenship in 2009. | ||||
| Actor | Jus soli | South Korea | Born Jo Jeong-ik in Arizona in 1983 to Korean American parents, he moved to South Korea in the early 1990s, made his debut as a singer there in 1997, and went on to an acting career in the mid-2000s, playing roles in television series such as Prosecutor Princess. He renounced U.S. citizenship in 2011 to serve in the Republic of Korea Army. | s | |||
| Musician | Naturalized | South Korea | Yoon, a native of South Korea, followed his family to the U.S. when they emigrated there in the 1980s. He returned to South Korea in the 1990s to pursue an entertainment industry career, eventually becoming a member of rock band MC the Max in 1999. He gave up U.S. citizenship in 2009 to serve in the Republic of Korea Army. | s | |||
| Actor Politician | ? | People's Republic of China | Yuen was born in Hong Kong. She renounced U.S. citizenship in 2012 in order to run in the Legislative Council election in September that year. | ? | |||
| Politician | Jus soli | Ukraine | Born Catherine Claire Chumachenko in Chicago in a Ukrainian immigrant family. The wife of the former President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko, she became a Ukrainian citizen in March 2005. Under Ukrainian law, this required her to renounce her prior U.S. citizenship within two years; however, she did not sign the Oath of Renunciation until August 2007, several months past the deadline. | ||||
| Businessperson Politician | Naturalized | People's Republic of China | A native of Hangzhou, Zong is the daughter of Hangzhou Wahaha Group founder Zong Qinghou. She attended high school and university in the United States. She naturalized as a U.S. citizen and lived in San Marino, California with her mother Shi Youzhen. However, in 2007 she returned to China and began the procedures to renounce U.S. citizenship and restore her Chinese citizenship. | ||||
| Other | Jus soli | Italy | Born in New York City, she emigrated to her parents' native Italy in 1938, and renounced her U.S. citizenship in 1941 to save her family's property from expropriation by Mussolini's government. Best known for her role as an "Axis Sally", reading English-language radio broadcasts aimed at U.S. soldiers during World War II. | Too early | |||
| Politician | Jus soli | Ukraine | Born in Yonkers, New York to Ukrainian immigrant parents, Zvarych moved to Ukraine in 1991. He co-founded the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists there in 1992. He renounced his U.S. citizenship in 1995 in order to naturalize as a Ukrainian citizen. He went on to become Minister of Justice under Viktor Yushchenko. | ||||
| Diplomat | Naturalized | Hungary | Born in Hungary in 1927, Zwack came to the U.S. with his family in 1948. He returned to Hungary in 1988. After the end of Communist rule, he was named Hungarian ambassador to the United States. He renounced his U.S. citizenship in 1990 to take up that post. | Too early |